Hierarchical Computing Architecture for Traffic Management

ABSTRACT

An example method determines a plurality of traffic sections for a geographical traffic area, each traffic section including a road segment and vehicle(s) traveling on the road segment; monitors a responsive vehicle rate for a first traffic section of the plurality of traffic sections; and assigns, based on the responsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section, the first traffic section to one of a first section server dedicated to manage the first traffic section and a remote management server capable of managing the plurality of traffic sections of the geographical traffic area, the first section server comprising computing device(s) of responsive vehicle(s) in the first traffic section.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to traffic management. In a moreparticular non-limiting example, the disclosure relates to ahierarchical computing architecture for managing traffic in geographictraffic areas.

It is challenging to efficiently perform traffic management as vehiclenetworks often dynamically change over time. Traffic management becomeseven more challenging when traffic incidents (e.g., road construction,traffic accidents, traffic congestions, etc.) occur, because the trafficincident often blocks traffic lanes or the entire road, and thus causinga large number of vehicles to change lane or to take different roadsnearby to pass through the traffic incident. Today, some moderncomputing systems rely on the communication between the vehicles or thecommunication between the vehicles and the computing server to performthe traffic management in the context of traffic incident. However,these existing solutions are generally expensive because they usuallyrequire a massive amount of computational resources of the computingserver. In addition, it is generally impractical or impossible for theseexisting solutions to flexibly and efficiently utilize the computationalresources of the computing server and the computational resources of thenavigable vehicles present on the road to perform the trafficmanagement, especially in case the number of navigable vehicles on theroad may drastically change over time.

SUMMARY

The subject matter described in this disclosure overcomes thedeficiencies and limitations of the existing solutions by providingnovel technology for effectively managing traffic in geographicaltraffic areas.

According to one innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis disclosure, a computer-implemented method comprises: determining aplurality of traffic sections for a geographical traffic area, eachtraffic section including a road segment and one or more vehiclestraveling on the road segment; monitoring a responsive vehicle rate fora first traffic section of the plurality of traffic sections; andassigning, based on the responsive vehicle rate of the first trafficsection, the first traffic section to one of a first section serverdedicated to manage the first traffic section and a remote managementserver capable of managing the plurality of traffic sections of thegeographical traffic area, the first section server comprising one ormore computing devices of one or more responsive vehicles in the firsttraffic section.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis disclosure may be embodied in computer-implemented methodscomprising: determining a plurality of traffic sections for ageographical traffic area, each traffic section including a road segmentand one or more vehicles traveling on the road segment; monitoring atraffic condition and a responsive vehicle rate for a first trafficsection of the plurality of traffic sections; and assigning, based onthe traffic condition and the responsive vehicle rate of the firsttraffic section, the first traffic section to one of a first sectionserver dedicated to manage the first traffic section and a remotemanagement server capable of managing the plurality of traffic sectionsof the geographical traffic area, the first section server comprisingone or more computing devices of one or more responsive vehicles in thefirst traffic section.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis disclosure may be embodied in systems comprising: one or moreprocessors; and one or more memories storing instructions that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the system to: determine aplurality of traffic sections for a geographical traffic area, eachtraffic section including a road segment and one or more vehiclestraveling on the road segment; monitor a responsive vehicle rate for afirst traffic section of the plurality of traffic sections; and assign,based on the responsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section, thefirst traffic section to one of a first section server dedicated tomanage the first traffic section and a remote management server capableof managing the plurality of traffic sections of the geographicaltraffic area, the first section server comprising one or more computingdevices of one or more responsive vehicles in the first traffic section.

These and other implementations may each optionally include one or moreof the following features: that the geographical traffic area includes aplurality of responsive vehicles and a plurality of non-responsivevehicles, and monitoring the responsive vehicle rate of the firsttraffic section includes determining a quantity of responsive vehiclesfrom the plurality of responsive vehicles that are located in the firsttraffic section, and calculating the responsive vehicle rate of thefirst traffic section based on the quantity of responsive vehicleslocated in the first traffic section; that determining the geographicaltraffic area based on a severity metric of a traffic incident locateddownstream of the geographical traffic area, the geographical trafficarea including one or more alternative travel routes, and dividing thegeographical traffic area into the plurality of traffic sections; thatreceiving real-time traffic data for the geographical traffic area,monitoring one or more traffic metrics of the first traffic sectionusing the real-time traffic data, determining that a traffic conditionof the first traffic section is degraded based on the one or moretraffic metrics of the first traffic section, determining that theresponsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section does not satisfy aresponsive vehicle rate threshold, and responsive to determining thatthe traffic condition of the first traffic section is degraded and theresponsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section does not satisfythe responsive vehicle rate threshold, re-determining the geographicaltraffic area; that assigning the first traffic section to one of thefirst section server and the remote management server includespreviously assigning the first traffic section to the first sectionserver, determining that a traffic condition of the first trafficsection is degraded and that the responsive vehicle rate of the firsttraffic section satisfies a responsive vehicle rate threshold, andresponsive to determining that the traffic condition of the firsttraffic section is degraded and the responsive vehicle rate of the firsttraffic section satisfies the responsive vehicle rate threshold,determining a second traffic section located adjacent to the firsttraffic section among the plurality of traffic sections, aggregating thefirst traffic section and the second traffic section into an aggregatedsection, and assigning the aggregated section to the remote managementserver; that assigning the first traffic section to one of the firstsection server and the remote management server includes previouslyassigning the first traffic section to the remote management server,determining that a traffic condition of the first traffic section isdegraded and that the responsive vehicle rate of the first trafficsection satisfies a responsive vehicle rate threshold, and responsive todetermining that the traffic condition of the first traffic section isdegraded and the responsive vehicle rate of the first traffic sectionsatisfies the responsive vehicle rate threshold, re-determining thegeographical traffic area; that assigning the first traffic section toone of the first section server and the remote management serverincludes previously assigning the an aggregated section including thefirst traffic section and a second traffic section to the remotemanagement server, determining that the responsive vehicle rate of thefirst traffic section does not satisfy a responsive vehicle ratethreshold, and responsive to determining that the responsive vehiclerate of the first traffic section does not satisfy the responsivevehicle rate threshold, dividing the aggregated section into the firsttraffic section and the second traffic section, and assigning the firsttraffic section to the first section server; that assigning the firsttraffic section to one of the first section server and the remotemanagement server includes previously assigning the an aggregatedsection including the first traffic section and a second traffic sectionto the remote management server, monitoring a resource amount of theremote management server that is utilized to perform one or morecomputational tasks for the aggregated section, determining that theresource amount associated with the aggregated section satisfies aresource amount threshold, and responsive to determining that theresource amount associated with the aggregated section satisfies theresource amount threshold, dividing the aggregated section into thefirst traffic section and the second traffic section, and assigning thefirst traffic section to the first section server; that previouslyassigning the an aggregated section including the first traffic sectionand a second traffic section to the remote management server, monitoringa resource amount of the remote management server that is utilized toperform one or more computational tasks for the aggregated section,determining that the resource amount associated with the aggregatedsection satisfies a resource amount threshold, and responsive todetermining that the resource amount associated with the aggregatedsection satisfies the resource amount threshold, selecting a thirdsection server comprising one or more computing devices of one or moreresponsive vehicles in a third traffic section, and transferring, to thethird section server, the one or more computational tasks associatedwith the aggregated section, the third section server performing the oneor more computational tasks; that assigning the first traffic section toone of the first section server and the remote management serverincludes generating, using the first section server, a first vehicleinstruction for a first responsive vehicle located in the first trafficsection based on vehicle data of the one or more responsive vehicles inthe first traffic section, generating, using the remote managementserver, a second vehicle instruction for the first responsive vehiclebased on the vehicle data of the one or more responsive vehicles in thefirst traffic section and vehicle data of one or more responsivevehicles in a second traffic section that is adjacent to the firsttraffic section, determining an instruction difference between the firstvehicle instruction for the first responsive vehicle and the secondvehicle instruction for the first responsive vehicle, determining thatthe instruction difference satisfies an instruction differencethreshold, and responsive to determining that the instruction differencesatisfies the instruction difference threshold, aggregating the firsttraffic section and the second traffic section into an aggregatedsection, and assigning the aggregated section to the remote managementserver.

Other implementations of one or more of these and other aspects includecorresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured toperform the actions of methods, encoded on non-transitory computerstorage devices.

The novel technology for managing traffic sections of a geographicaltraffic area presented in this disclosure is particularly advantageousin a number of respects. For example, the technology described herein iscapable of dynamically assigning a traffic section of the geographicaltraffic area to the corresponding section server or to the remotemanagement server based on the responsive vehicle rate of the trafficsection to perform the traffic management for the traffic section. Asdiscussed elsewhere herein, the section server may be dedicated to thetraffic section and may be a local/regional server located within apredefined distance from the traffic section, or a vehicular server thatis formed by one or more responsive vehicles in the traffic section. Theremote management server may be a remote server capable of managingmultiple traffic sections of the geographical traffic area and may beoperated by a third party. Therefore, the remote management server canuse vehicle data of the responsive vehicles in various traffic sectionsto perform the traffic management more efficiently. However, the trafficmanagement performed by the remote management server usually results inhigher resource usage cost and higher communication latency as comparedto the traffic management performed by the section server associatedwith the traffic section.

The technology described herein can dynamically assign each trafficsection of the geographical traffic area to the corresponding sectionserver or the remote management server based on the traffic condition ofthe traffic section, the responsive vehicle rate of the traffic section,and/or the resource amount of the remote management server required toperform the traffic management for the traffic section, etc. As aresult, the present technology can manage the responsive vehicles in thetraffic section to mitigate the traffic incident with an optimal balancebetween the effectiveness of the traffic management, the communicationlatency, the resource usage cost, etc., according to the dynamic changein the responsive vehicle rate of the traffic section. The technologydescribed herein is also capable of adjusting the geographical trafficarea if needed to effectively perform the traffic management for thetraffic sections, thereby efficiently addressing the heavy trafficcaused by the traffic incident.

It should be understood that the foregoing advantages are provided byway of example and that the technology may have numerous otheradvantages and benefits.

The disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not by way oflimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereference numerals are used to refer to similar elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system for managing trafficsections of a geographical traffic area.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example traffic section managingapplication.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an example method for managing the trafficsections.

FIGS. 4-6 are flowcharts of other example methods for managing thetraffic sections.

FIG. 7A-7C are block diagrams illustrating example system architecturesof the system for managing the traffic sections in a distributedmanagement state, a centralized management state, and a hybridmanagement state, respectively.

FIG. 7D is a block diagram illustrating an example system architectureof the system for managing the traffic sections as an offload sectionserver is utilized to perform the traffic management for an aggregatedsection.

FIG. 7E is a block diagram illustrating an example system architectureof the system for managing the traffic sections as the aggregatedsection is divided into individual traffic sections.

FIG. 7F is a block diagram illustrating an example system architectureof the system for managing the traffic sections as the geographicaltraffic area is adjusted.

DESCRIPTION

The technology described herein can effectively and efficiently managetraffic sections of a geographical traffic area. As described in furtherdetail below, the technology includes various aspects, such as trafficsection management methods, systems, computing devices, computer programproducts, and apparatuses, among other aspects.

The present technology can provide a hierarchical system with a dynamicsystem architecture that enables the traffic management for a trafficsection to be flexibly executed at different computing entities of thesystem (e.g., remote management server, section servers, offload sectionserver, etc.) depending on the responsive vehicle rate, thecommunication latency, the resource amount to perform the trafficmanagement for the traffic section, etc. As an example, the presenttechnology may flexibly group multiple traffic sections into a largerregion, and assign the larger region to the global computing entity(e.g., remote management server). The global computing entity can managethe responsive vehicles in the larger region in centralized computationmode. As discussed elsewhere herein, the global computing entitygenerally has high processing capability but the traffic managementperformed by the global computing entity is usually expensive andsubjected to high communication latency. As another example, the presenttechnology may flexibly divide the larger region into smaller trafficsections, and assign the traffic sections to the local computingentities (e.g., traffic section servers). The local computing entity canmanage the responsive vehicles in the corresponding traffic section indecentralized computation mode. As discussed elsewhere herein, the localcomputing entity generally has limited processing capability but it iscapable of performing the traffic management with relatively low costand low communication latency.

The technology described herein can flexibly apply the suitablecomputation mode and dynamically transition the computational tasks formanaging the traffic in the traffic section to the suitable computingentity of the system, thereby obtaining the optimal balance between theeffectiveness of the traffic management and the resource usage cost. Thetransition of the computational tasks between computing entities of thesystem may be triggered by the traffic condition that reflects theeffectiveness of the traffic management operation, the resourceavailability of the global computing entity (e.g., cloud server) and thelocal computing entities (e.g., vehicular servers), the communicationcost (e.g., V2V and V2I communication latency), the vehicle location ofthe responsive vehicles that form the offload section server in whichthe offload section server can be temporarily recruited to perform thetraffic management for the traffic section, etc.

An example traffic section management system may determine ageographical traffic area based on a traffic incident, the geographicaltraffic area may be located upstream of the traffic incident and includeone or more alternative routes for the vehicles to get around thetraffic incident and proceed forward. In some embodiments, the trafficsection management system may divide the geographical traffic area intoone or more traffic sections, each traffic section may be associatedwith a section server that is dedicated to manage the responsivevehicles in the traffic section. In some embodiments, the section servermay be a vehicular server being formed by the computing devices of oneor more responsive vehicles located in the traffic section. In someembodiments, the traffic section management system may assign eachtraffic section in the geographical traffic area to the section serverassociated with the traffic section, or to the remote management servercapable of managing multiple traffic sections of the geographicaltraffic area. Each traffic section may be assigned to the correspondingsection server or to the remote management server based on the trafficcondition of the traffic section, the responsive vehicle rate indicatingthe quantity of responsive vehicles in the traffic section, and/or theresource amount of the remote management server required to perform thetraffic management for the traffic section, etc. In some embodiments,the section server or the remote management server to which the trafficsection is assigned may perform the traffic management for the trafficsection to resolve the heavy traffic caused by the traffic incident. Forexample, the section server or the remote management server may receivethe vehicle data from the responsive vehicles located within the trafficsection, determine driving context, determine optimal driving maneuversand/or optimal vehicle route for each responsive vehicle in the trafficsection to proceed, and provide vehicle instructions to the responsivevehicle accordingly.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system 100 for managing trafficsections of a geographical traffic area. As shown, the system 100includes a remote management server 101, one or more responsive vehicles103 a . . . 103 n, one or more section servers 107 a . . . 107 n, andone or more non-responsive vehicles 109 a . . . 109 n. The remotemanagement server 101, the responsive vehicles 103 a . . . 103 n, andthe section servers 107 a . . . 107 n may be coupled for electroniccommunication via a network 105. In FIG. 1 and the remaining figures, aletter after a reference number, e.g., “103 a,” represents a referenceto the element having that particular reference number. A referencenumber in the text without a following letter, e.g., “103,” represents ageneral reference to instances of the element bearing that referencenumber. It should be understood that the system 100 depicted in FIG. 1is provided by way of example and the system 100 and/or further systemscontemplated by this present disclosure may include additional and/orfewer components, may combine components and/or divide one or more ofthe components into additional components, etc. For example, the system100 may include any number of responsive vehicles 103, non-responsivevehicles 109, section servers 107, remote management servers 101, ornetworks 105.

The network 105 may be a conventional type, wired and/or wireless, andmay have numerous different configurations including a starconfiguration, token ring configuration, or other configurations. Forexample, the network 105 may include one or more local area networks(LAN), wide area networks (WAN) (e.g., the Internet), personal areanetworks (PAN), public networks, private networks, virtual networks,virtual private networks, peer-to-peer networks, near-field networks(e.g., Bluetooth®, NFC, etc.), vehicular networks, and/or otherinterconnected data paths across which multiple devices may communicate.

The network 105 may also be coupled to or include portions of atelecommunications network for sending data in a variety of differentcommunication protocols. Example protocols include, but are not limitedto, transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), userdatagram protocol (UDP), transmission control protocol (TCP), hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP), secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS),dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH), real-time streamingprotocol (RTSP), real-time transport protocol (RTP) and the real-timetransport control protocol (RTCP), voice over Internet protocol (VOIP),file transfer protocol (FTP), WebSocket (WS), wireless access protocol(WAP), various messaging protocols (SMS, MMS, XMS, IMAP, SMTP, POP,WebDAV, etc.), or other suitable protocols. In some embodiments, thenetwork 105 is a wireless network using a connection such as DSRC(Dedicated Short Range Communication), WAVE, 802.11p, a 3G, 4G,5G+network, WiFi™, satellite networks, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)networks, vehicle-to-infrastructure/infrastructure-to-vehicle (V2I/I2V)networks, vehicle-to-infrastructure/vehicle-to-everything (V2I/V2X)networks, or any other wireless networks. Although FIG. 1 illustrates asingle block for the network 105 that couples to the remote managementserver 101, the responsive vehicle(s) 103, and the section server(s)107, it should be understood that the network 105 may in practicecomprise any number of combination of networks, as noted above.

The responsive vehicle 103 may be a vehicle platform that is capable ofcommunicating with other computing entities of the system 100. In someembodiments, the responsive vehicle 103 may be responsive to the vehicleinstructions generated by its on-board processors and/or received via acomputer network (e.g., the network 105), and thus the responsivevehicle 103 is capable of being controlled to manage the traffic andmitigate the traffic incident. On the other hand, the non-responsivevehicle 109 may be a vehicle platform that lacks the capability of beingcontrolled to manage the traffic and mitigate the traffic incident, orhas such capability but is restricted from or incapable of using it dueto various reasons (e.g., system errors, power loss, opt-out settings,etc.). The responsive vehicles 103 and the non-responsive vehicles 109may be commonly referred to herein as vehicle(s), and these vehicles arecapable of transporting from one point to another. Non-limiting examplesof the vehicle include an automobile, a bus, a boat, a plane, a bionicimplant, a robot, or any other vehicle platforms.

The responsive vehicle 103 may include computing device(s) 152 havingsensor(s) 113, processor(s) 115, memory(ies) 117, communication unit(s)119, vehicle data store(s) 123, a traffic section managing application120, and a navigation application 122. Examples of the computing device152 may include virtual or physical computer processors, control units,micro-controllers, etc., which are coupled to other components of theresponsive vehicle 103, such as one or more sensors 113, actuators,motivators, etc. The responsive vehicle 103 may be coupled to thenetwork 105 via signal line 156, and may send and receive data to andfrom other responsive vehicle(s) 103, the section server(s) 107, and/orthe remote management server 101. In some embodiments, the responsivevehicle 103 may be temporarily coupled to the section servers 107 as theresponsive vehicle 103 travels along the roads. For example, theresponsive vehicle 103 may send and receive data to and from a sectionserver 107 as the responsive vehicle 103 is located within the trafficsection managed by the section server 107. Thus, the section server 107may generate and provide vehicle instructions for the responsive vehicle103 to navigate accordingly, thereby managing the traffic in the trafficsection of the section server 107 to mitigate the traffic incident.

The processor 115 may execute software instructions (e.g., tasks) byperforming various input/output, logical, and/or mathematicaloperations. The processor 115 may have various computing architecturesto process data signals. The processor 115 may be physical and/orvirtual, and may include a single core or plurality of processing unitsand/or cores. In the context of the responsive vehicle 103, theprocessor may be an electronic control unit (ECU) implemented in theresponsive vehicle 103 such as a car, although other types of platformare also possible and contemplated. The ECU may receive and store thesensor data as vehicle operation data in the vehicle data store 123 foraccess and/or retrieval by the traffic section managing application 120,the navigation application 122, and/or other vehicle applications. Insome implementations, the processor 115 may be capable of generating andproviding electronic display signals to input/output device(s),performing complex tasks including various types of data analysis andtraffic section management, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 115may be coupled to the memory 117 via the bus 154 to access data andinstructions therefrom and store data therein. The bus 154 may couplethe processor 115 to the other components of the responsive vehicle 103including, for example, the sensor 113, the memory 117, thecommunication unit 119, and/or the vehicle data store 123.

The traffic section managing application 120 is computer logicexecutable to manage the traffic sections of section servers 107. Asillustrated in FIG. 1, the remote management server 101 may include theinstance 120 a, the responsive vehicles 103 a . . . 103 n may includethe instances 120 b . . . 120 m, and the section servers 107 a . . . 107n may include the instances 120 c . . . 120 n of the traffic sectionmanaging application 120. In some embodiments, each instance 120 a, 120b . . . 120 m, and 120 c . . . 120 n may comprise one or more componentsthe traffic section managing application 120 depicted in FIG. 2, and maybe configured to fully or partially perform the functionalitiesdescribed herein depending on where the instance resides. In someembodiments, the traffic section managing application 120 may beimplemented using software executable by one or more processors of oneor more computer devices, using hardware, such as but not limited to afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), etc., and/or a combination of hardware and software,etc. The traffic section managing application 120 may receive andprocess vehicle data, server data, etc., and may communicate with otherelements of the responsive vehicle 103 via the bus 154, such as thememory 117, the communication unit 119, the vehicle data store 123, etc.The traffic section managing application 120 is described in detailsbelow with reference to at least FIGS. 2-7F.

The navigation application 122 is computer logic executable to providenavigational guidance to the responsive vehicle 103. As illustrated inFIG. 1, the remote management server 101 may include the instance 122 a,the responsive vehicles 103 a . . . 103 n may include the instances 122b . . . 122 m, and the section servers 107 a . . . 107 n may include theinstances 122 c . . . 122 n of the navigation application 122. In someembodiments, the navigation application 122 may be implemented usingsoftware executable by one or more processors of one or more computerdevices, using hardware, such as but not limited to a field-programmablegate array (FPGA), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC),etc., and/or a combination of hardware and software, etc. In someembodiments, the navigation application 122 may determine an optimalvehicle route to get around the traffic incident, generate navigationinstructions corresponding to the vehicle route, and provide thenavigation instructions to the responsive vehicle 103 or to the user ofthe responsive vehicle 103 via the input/output device of the responsivevehicle 103. In some embodiments, the navigation application 122 mayperform path planning to determine driving maneuvers for the responsivevehicle 103 to proceed through the road segment including the trafficincident (e.g., make a lane change to the left lane), and providedriving instructions describing the driving maneuvers to the responsivevehicle 103 or to the user of the responsive vehicle 103 via theinput/output device of the responsive vehicle 103.

In some embodiments, the navigation application 122 may analyze thevehicle data received from multiple responsive vehicles 103 to determinedriving context, and determine optimal vehicle route and/or optimaldriving maneuvers for each responsive vehicle 103. Thus, as thenavigation application 122 can collect relevant data from multipleresponsive vehicles 103 located within the same traffic section orwithin one or more adjacent traffic sections, the navigation application122 can effectively coordinate the vehicle movement of these responsivevehicles 103, thereby quickly address the heavy traffic caused by thetraffic incident. It should be understood that in addition to thenavigation application 122, other vehicle applications may also beimplemented in the responsive vehicles 103, the section servers 107,and/or the remote management server 101.

The memory 117 includes a non-transitory computer-usable (e.g.,readable, writeable, etc.) medium, which can be any tangiblenon-transitory apparatus or device that can contain, store, communicate,propagate or transport instructions, data, computer programs, software,code, routines, etc., for processing by or in connection with theprocessor 115. For example, the memory 117 may store the traffic sectionmanaging application 120 and/or the navigation application 122. In someimplementations, the memory 117 may include one or more of volatilememory and non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 117 may includeone or more of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a staticrandom access memory (SRAM) device, a discrete memory device (e.g., aPROM, FPROM, ROM, etc.), a hard disk drive, an optical disk drive (CD,DVD, Blue-ray™, etc.), etc. It should be understood that the memory 117may be a single device or may include multiple types of devices andconfigurations.

The communication unit 119 transmits data to and receives data fromother computing devices to which it is communicatively coupled (e.g.,via the network 105) using wireless and/or wired connections. Thecommunication unit 119 may include one or more wired interfaces and/orwireless transceivers for sending and receiving data. The communicationunit 119 may couple to the network 105 and communicate with otherentities of the system 100, such as other responsive vehicle(s) 103, theremote management server 101, and/or the section server 107 associatedwith the traffic section in which the responsive vehicle 103 is located,etc. The communication unit 119 may exchange data with other computingnodes using standard communication methods, such as those discussedabove.

The sensor(s) 113 includes any type of sensors suitable for theresponsive vehicle(s) 103. The sensor(s) 113 may be configured tocollect any type of signal data suitable to determine characteristics ofthe responsive vehicle 103 and/or its internal and externalenvironments. Non-limiting examples of the sensor(s) 113 include variousoptical sensors and/or image sensors (CCD, CMOS, 2D, 3D, light detectionand ranging (LIDAR), cameras, etc.), audio sensors, motion detectionsensors, barometers, altimeters, thermocouples, moisture sensors,infrared (IR) sensors, radar sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers,speedometers, steering sensors, braking sensors, switches, vehicleindicator sensors, geo-location sensors (e.g., Global Positioning System(GPS) sensors), orientation sensor, wireless transceivers (e.g.,cellular, WiFi™, near-field, etc.), sonar sensors, ultrasonic sensors,touch sensors, distance sensors, etc. In some embodiments, one or moresensors 113 may include externally facing sensors provided at the frontside, rear side, right side, and/or left side of the responsive vehicle103 to capture the situational context surrounding the responsivevehicle 103.

The vehicle data store 123 includes a non-transitory storage medium thatstores various types of data. For example, the vehicle data store 123may store vehicle data being communicated between different componentsof a given responsive vehicle 103 using a bus, such as a controller areanetwork (CAN) bus. In some embodiments, the vehicle data may includevehicle operation data collected from multiple sensors 113 coupled todifferent components of the responsive vehicle 103 for monitoringoperating states of these components, e.g., the vehicle speed, thevehicle acceleration/deceleration rate, the wheel speed, the steeringangle, the braking force, etc. In some embodiments, the vehicle data mayalso include the vehicle location (e.g., GPS coordinates) indicating thegeographic location of the responsive vehicle 103, the moving directionof the responsive vehicle 103, the following distance between theresponsive vehicle 103 and the proximate vehicles in front and behindthe responsive vehicle 103, the vehicle route currently followed by theresponsive vehicle 103 to get to a destination, etc. Other types of datastored in the vehicle data store 123 are also possible and contemplated.

The section server 107 is a hardware and/or virtual server that includesa processor, a memory, and network communication capabilities (e.g., acommunication unit). As depicted in FIG. 1, the section server 107 maybe communicatively coupled to the responsive vehicles 103 located withinits traffic section, the remote management server 101, and/or otherentities of the system 100 via the network 105 as reflected by signalline 160. In some embodiments, the section server 107 may be dedicatedto manage a traffic section within a geographical traffic area. Thus,the section server 107 may communicate with the vehicular traffic inthis traffic section, and perform the traffic management for thistraffic section. For example, the section server 107 may send andreceive data to and from the responsive vehicles 103 located within thetraffic section, and manage the vehicle movement of these responsivevehicles 103 to resolve the heavy traffic and mitigate the trafficincident.

In some embodiments, the section server 107 may be a physical server 107or a virtual server 107 implemented on a physical computing entity. Thephysical server 107 or the physical computing entity on which thevirtual server 107 resides may be located at a lower distance from thetraffic section of the section server 107 as compared to the remotemanagement server 101. In some embodiments, the section server 107 maybe a vehicular server formed by one or more responsive vehicles 103located within the traffic section of the section server 107. Forexample, the section server 107 may comprise the computing devices 152of one or more responsive vehicles 103 located within its trafficsection, and thus these responsive vehicles 103 may contributecomputational resources and collaboratively perform the functionalitiesof the section server 107. As the responsive vehicles 103 maydynamically enter and leave the traffic section as they proceed on theroad, the responsive vehicles 103 that form the section server 107 andthe resource capacity of the section server 107 may dynamically changeover time.

As depicted in FIG. 1, the section server 107 may include an instance120 c of the traffic section managing application 120, an instance 122 bof the navigation application 122, and a section server data store 126that stores various types of data for access and/or retrieval by theseapplications. In some embodiments, the section server data store 126includes a non-transitory storage medium that stores the section datadescribing the traffic section being managed by the section server 107.The section data may include the section identifier (ID), the sectionlocation (e.g., GPS coordinates), the coverage region of the trafficsection (e.g., shape and size), the roadway structure of the trafficsection (e.g., freeway exit, intersection, etc.), etc.

In some embodiments, the section server data store 126 may storereal-time traffic data including various traffic metrics that describethe traffic condition in the traffic section of the section server 107.Non-limiting examples of the traffic metrics include the vehicle densityindicating the number of vehicles present on a predefined distance ofthe traffic section (e.g., 60 vehicles/km), the traffic flow rateindicating the number of vehicles passing a static point in the trafficsection during a predefined time period (e.g., 1500 vehicles/h), theaverage vehicle speed (e.g., 30 mph) and the average following distance(e.g., 3 m) of the vehicles travelling in the traffic section, etc. Insome embodiments, the section server data store 126 may also store theresponsive vehicle rate indicating the quantity of responsive vehicles103 that are located in the traffic section of the section server 107(e.g., 45 responsive vehicles). As the responsive vehicles 103 maydynamically enter and leave the traffic section as they proceed on theroad, the number of responsive vehicles 103 present in the trafficsection may dynamically change over time. In some embodiments, thesection server data store 126 may also store the current managementstate that is currently applied to the traffic section of the sectionserver 107 (e.g., centralized state, distributed state, hybrid state,etc.), and/or the server that currently manages the traffic section(e.g., the section server 107 associated with the traffic section, theremote management server 101, etc.). Other types of data stored in thesection server data store 126 are also possible and contemplated.

The remote management server 101 includes a hardware and/or virtualserver that includes a processor, a memory, and network communicationcapabilities (e.g., a communication unit). In some embodiments, theremote management server 101 may be a computing server located remotelyfrom the geographical traffic area and operated by a third party. Forexample, the remote management server 101 may be a cloud server residingin a third-party data center.

Therefore, the traffic management performed by the remote managementserver 101 may incur higher communication latency and/or higher resourceusage cost as compared to the section servers 107 associated with thetraffic sections. As depicted in FIG. 1, the remote management server101 may be communicatively coupled to the network 105 as reflected bysignal line 158, and may send and receive data to and from otherentities of the system 100 (e.g., the section servers 107, theresponsive vehicles 103, etc.) via the network 105.

As depicted in FIG. 1, the remote management server 101 may include aninstance 120 a of the traffic section managing application 120, aninstance 122 a of the navigation application 122, and a managementserver data store 124 that stores various types of data for accessand/or retrieval by these applications. In some embodiments, themanagement server data store 124 includes a non-transitory storagemedium that stores geographical area data describing the geographicaltraffic area being managed by the remote management server 101. Thegeographical area data may include the traffic incident location (e.g.,GPS coordinates), the geographical area location (e.g., GPScoordinates), the coverage region of the geographical traffic area(e.g., shape and size), the potential travel routes for the vehicles inthe geographical traffic area, etc. As discussed elsewhere herein, thegeographical traffic area may be divided into one or more trafficsections. For each traffic section, the management server data store 124may store the section data describing the traffic section. As discussedelsewhere herein, the section data of the traffic section may includethe section ID, the section location, the coverage region of the trafficsection, the roadway structure of the traffic section, the trafficcondition of the traffic section (e.g., the vehicle density, the trafficflow rate, the average vehicle speed, the average following distance,etc.), the responsive vehicle rate of the traffic section (e.g., 30responsive vehicles), etc.

In some embodiments, for each traffic section, the management serverdata store 124 may store the current management state that is currentlyapplied to the traffic section, and/or the server that currently managesthe traffic section (e.g., the section server 107 associated with thetraffic section, the remote management server 101, etc.). In someembodiments, the traffic sections in the geographical traffic area maybe managed in the distributed management state, the centralizedmanagement state, the hybrid management state, etc. As depicted in theexample system architecture 700 in FIG. 7A, in the distributedmanagement state, each traffic section 702 of the geographical trafficarea 704 may be individually managed by the section server 107associated with the traffic section 702. Thus, the corresponding sectionserver 107 may receive the vehicle data of the responsive vehicles 103located within the traffic section 702, and compute the vehicleinstructions for these responsive vehicles 103 to manage the traffic inthis traffic section. As depicted in the example system architecture 710in FIG. 7B, in the centralized management state, all traffic sections702 of the geographical traffic area 704 may be managed by the remotemanagement server 101. Thus, the remote management server 101 mayreceive the vehicle data of the responsive vehicles 103 located withinthe traffic sections 702, and compute the vehicle instructions for theseresponsive vehicles 103 to commonly manage the traffic in these trafficsections. As the remote management server 101 may rely on relevant dataof the responsive vehicles 103 in multiple traffic sections 702 tocompute the vehicle instructions, the remote management server 101 mayperform the traffic management for these traffic sections 702 moreeffectively.

As depicted in FIG. 7C, in the hybrid management state, one or moretraffic sections 702 may be individually managed by their correspondingsection server 107, and other traffic sections 702 may be grouped intoone or more aggregated sections 722 that are managed by the remotemanagement server 101. Thus, for each aggregated section 722, the remotemanagement server 101 may receive the vehicle data of the responsivevehicles 103 located within multiple traffic sections 702 that areincluded in the aggregated section 722, and compute the vehicleinstructions for these responsive vehicles 103 to commonly manage thetraffic in these traffic sections. In some embodiments, for eachaggregated section 722, the management server data store 124 may storethe aggregated section ID of the aggregated section and the section IDsof the traffic sections 702 included in the aggregated section. In someembodiments, for the centralized management state, the management serverdata store 124 may store the resource amount of the remote managementserver 101 that is consumed to perform the traffic management for eachtraffic section 702. For the hybrid management state, the managementserver data store 124 may store the resource amount of the remotemanagement server 101 that is consumed to perform the traffic managementfor each aggregated section 722. It should be understood that othermanagement states are also possible and contemplated.

Other variations and/or combinations are also possible and contemplated.It should be understood that the system 100 in FIG. 1 is merely anexample system and that a variety of different system environments andconfigurations are contemplated and are within the scope of the presentdisclosure. For example, various acts and/or functionality may be movedfrom a server to a client, or vice versa, data may be consolidated intoa single data store or further segmented into additional data stores,and some implementations may include additional or fewer computingdevices, services, and/or networks, and may implement variousfunctionality client or server-side. Further, various entities of thesystem may be integrated into a single computing device or system ordivided into additional computing devices or systems, etc.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example traffic section managingapplication 120. As depicted, the traffic section managing application120 may include a traffic area processor 202 and a traffic sectionmanager 204, although it should be understood that the traffic sectionmanaging application 120 may include additional components such as, butnot limited to, a configuration engine, a training engine, etc., and/orthese various components may be combined into a single engine or dividedinto additional engines. The traffic area processor 202 and the trafficsection manager 204 may be implemented as software, hardware, or acombination of the foregoing. In some embodiments, the traffic areaprocessor 202 and the traffic section manager 204 may be communicativelycoupled by the bus 154 and/or the processor 115 to one another and/or toother components of the computing device 152. In some embodiments, oneor more of the components 120, 202, and/or 204 are sets of instructionsexecutable by the processor 115 to provide their functionality. Infurther embodiments, one or more of the components 120, 202, and/or 204are storable in the memory 117 and are accessible and executable by theprocessor 115 to provide their functionality. In any of the foregoingembodiments, these components 120, 202, and/or 204 may be adapted forcooperation and communication with the processor 115 and othercomponents of the computing device 152. The traffic section managingapplication 120 and its components 202 and 204 are described in furtherdetail below with reference to at least FIGS. 3-7F.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an example method 300 for managing the trafficsections in the geographical traffic area to perform the trafficmanagement for these traffic sections in an effective manner. In someembodiments, the geographical traffic area may be located upstream of atraffic incident (e.g., road construction, traffic accident, etc.), andthus the traffic in the geographical traffic area may be managed throughthe responsive vehicles 103 to resolve the heavy traffic caused by thetraffic incident. In block 302, the traffic section manager 204 maydetermine a plurality of traffic sections for the geographical trafficarea, each traffic section may include one or more road segments and oneor more vehicles traveling on the road segments. In some embodiments,each traffic section may be associated with a section server 107dedicated to manage the traffic in the traffic section. As discussedelsewhere herein, the section server 107 may be a local/regional serveror a vehicular server that is formed by the computing devices 152 of oneor more responsive vehicles 103 located within the first trafficsection.

In block 304, the traffic section manager 204 may monitor a responsivevehicle rate for each traffic section in the geographical traffic area.As depicted in FIG. 7A, each traffic section in the geographical trafficarea may include one or more responsive vehicles 103 and/or one or morenon-responsive vehicles 109. In some embodiments, the responsive vehiclerate of a first traffic section in the geographical traffic area mayindicate the number of responsive vehicles 103 located within the firsttraffic section. The responsive vehicle rate may also be referred toherein as the penetration rate.

In block 306, the traffic section manager 204 may assign the firsttraffic section to one of the first section server 107 dedicated tomanage the first traffic section and the remote management server 101based on the responsive vehicle rate of a first traffic section. Thus,the first section server 107 or the remote management server 101 towhich the first traffic section is assigned may perform the trafficmanagement for the first traffic section. In some embodiments, toperform the traffic management for the first traffic section, thenavigation application 122 implemented on the first section server 107or on the remote management server 101 may receive the vehicle data ofthe responsive vehicles 103 located in the first traffic section,determine travel route and/or driving maneuvers for the responsivevehicles 103, and generate vehicle instructions for these responsivevehicles 103 to coordinate their vehicle movement. For example, thenavigation application 122 may redirect one or more first responsivevehicles 103 to a first alternative route, and redirect one or moresecond responsive vehicles 103 to a second alternative route in thefirst traffic section. As a result, the number of vehicles proceedingtowards the traffic incident may be reduced, thereby addressing theheavy traffic caused by the traffic incident.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example method 400 for managing the trafficsections in the geographical traffic area. In block 402, the trafficarea processor 202 may determine the geographical traffic area based ona traffic incident. In some embodiments, the traffic area processor 202may detect or receive information about the traffic incident. Thetraffic incident may block a portion or the entire road segment, andthus causing heavy or congested traffic due to traffic obstruction.Non-limiting examples of the traffic incident include a roadconstruction, a traffic accident, a traffic congestion, etc. In someembodiments, the traffic area processor 202 may determine or receive thetraffic incident location and the severity metric of the trafficincident. The severity metric may indicate a potential impact of thetraffic incident on the upstream traffic, and may be determined based onthe incident area occupied by the traffic incident (e.g., 150 m), theroadway structure of the incident area (e.g., intersection, freewayentrance, etc.), the current date and time (e.g., peak hour on weekday),etc. In some embodiments, the traffic area processor 202 may determinethe geographical traffic area to be subjected to traffic managementbased on the traffic incident location and the severity metric of thetraffic incident. In some embodiments, the traffic incident may belocated downstream of the geographical traffic area, and thegeographical traffic area may include one or more alternative travelroutes for the vehicles to avoid the traffic incident. In someembodiments, the number of alternative travel routes included in thegeographical traffic area may be directly proportional to the severitymetric of the traffic incident. Other implementations for determiningthe geographical traffic area are also possible and contemplated.

In block 404, the traffic area processor 202 may determine a pluralityof traffic sections for the geographical traffic area. In someembodiments, the traffic area processor 202 may divide the geographicaltraffic area into the plurality of traffic sections, each trafficsection may include one or more road segments and may cover a coverageregion having a predefined length (e.g., 150-200 m). In someembodiments, the traffic area processor 202 may determine the pluralityof traffic sections based on the roadway structure of the geographicaltraffic area. For example, the traffic section may include a roadsegment between 2 adjacent intersections, a road segment between 2adjacent freeway exits, an on-ramp segment, etc. It should be understoodthat the coverage regions of different traffic sections in thegeographical traffic area may have the same or different shape and size.Other implementations for determining the traffic sections for thegeographical traffic area are also possible and contemplated.

In some embodiments, as the traffic incident occurs, the traffic sectionmanager 204 may determine an initial management state for the trafficsections of the geographical traffic area based on the severity metricof the traffic incident. In some embodiments, if the severity metric ofthe traffic incident satisfies a severity metric threshold (e.g., morethan 75%), the traffic section manager 204 may determine the initialmanagement state for the traffic sections of the geographical trafficarea to be the centralized management state. As discussed elsewhereherein, in the centralized management state, the traffic sections of thegeographical traffic area may be commonly managed by the remotemanagement server 101, and thus the traffic management for the trafficsections may be performed more effectively, with relatively highcommunication latency and high resource usage cost as compared to thedistributed management state. In some embodiments, if the severitymetric of the traffic incident does not satisfy the severity metricthreshold (e.g., less than or equal to 75%), the traffic section manager204 may determine the initial management state for the traffic sectionsof the geographical traffic area to be the distributed management state.As discussed elsewhere herein, in the distributed management state, thetraffic sections of the geographical traffic area may be individuallymanaged by its corresponding section server 107, and thus the trafficmanagement for the traffic sections may be performed less effectively,with relatively low communication latency and low resource usage cost ascompared to the centralized management state.

In block 406, the traffic section manager 204 may monitor the trafficcondition and the responsive vehicle rate in each traffic section of thegeographical traffic area. The geographical traffic area may include aplurality of responsive vehicles 103 and a plurality of non-responsivevehicles 109. In some embodiments, the responsive vehicles 103 in thegeographical traffic area may transmit their vehicle data (e.g., thevehicle location, the vehicle speed, the following distance, etc.) tothe section server 107 and/or to the remote management server 101 at apredefined interval (e.g., every 5 s). In some embodiments, to monitorthe responsive vehicle rate of a first traffic section in thegeographical traffic area, the traffic section manager 204 may analyzethe vehicle data of these responsive vehicles 103, and determine theresponsive vehicles 103 located in the first traffic section from theplurality of responsive vehicles 103 in the geographical traffic areabased on their vehicle location. The traffic section manager 204 maycalculate the responsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section basedon the quantity of responsive vehicles 103 that are located in the firsttraffic section. For example, the traffic section manager 204 maydetermine the responsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section to bethe quantity of responsive vehicles 103 located within the first trafficsection (e.g., 25 responsive vehicles).

In some embodiments, to monitor the traffic condition in the firsttraffic section, the traffic section manager 204 may receive real-timetraffic data for the geographical traffic area, and monitor one or moretraffic metrics of the first traffic section using the real-time trafficdata. For example, the traffic section manager 204 may receive thevehicle data of the responsive vehicles 103 in the geographical trafficarea. The traffic section manager 204 may determine the responsivevehicles 103 located within the first traffic section, analyze thevehicle data of these responsive vehicles 103, and calculate one or moretraffic metrics describing the traffic condition of the first trafficsection (e.g., the vehicle density, the traffic flow rate, the averagevehicle speed, the average following distance, etc.) based on thevehicle data of these responsive vehicles 103.

In block 408, the traffic section manager 204 may determine whether thetraffic condition of the first traffic section is degraded based on oneor more traffic metrics of the first traffic section. In someembodiments, the traffic section manager 204 may determine that atraffic metric of the first traffic section satisfies a correspondingtraffic metric threshold (e.g., the average vehicle speed is lower than25 mph, the vehicle density is higher than 70 vehicles/km, etc.), andthus determine that the traffic condition of the first traffic sectionis degraded. If the traffic condition of the first traffic section isdegraded, the method 400 may proceed to block 410. If the trafficcondition of the first traffic section is not degraded, the method 400may proceed to block 406 to continue monitoring the traffic conditionand the responsive vehicle rate in each traffic section of thegeographical traffic area.

In block 410, the traffic section manager 204 may determine whether theresponsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section satisfies aresponsive vehicle rate threshold. If the responsive vehicle rate of thefirst traffic section does not satisfy the responsive vehicle ratethreshold (e.g., less than or equal to 10 responsive vehicles), thetraffic section manager 204 may determine that the traffic condition inthe first traffic section is degraded, and the quantity of responsivevehicles 103 located within the first traffic section is insufficient toeffectively manage the traffic in the first traffic section throughcoordinating the vehicle movement of these responsive vehicles 103. Inthis situation, the method 400 may proceed to block 402. In block 402,the traffic area processor 202 may re-determine the geographical trafficarea. In some embodiments, the traffic area processor 202 may expand thegeographical traffic area to include one or more additional alternativetravel routes, and determine the traffic sections for the expandedgeographical traffic area with increased coverage region of the trafficsections to potentially include more responsive vehicles 103 in thetraffic sections. For example, the traffic area processor 202 may expandthe geographical traffic area to include 2 more alternative travelroutes, and increase the length of the coverage region of the trafficsections by 50 m. This implementation is advantageous, because it candynamically adjust the geographical traffic area and the trafficsections so that the quantity of responsive vehicles 103 located withina traffic section is sufficient to impact the traffic in the trafficsection through their vehicle movement, and thus the effectiveness ofthe traffic management applied to the traffic section can be improved.FIG. 7F illustrates an example system architecture 750 in which thegeographical traffic area 704 is expanded to additionally include thetraffic section 752 associated with the section server 762.

If in block 410, the traffic section manager 204 determines that theresponsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section satisfies theresponsive vehicle rate threshold (e.g., more than 10 responsivevehicles), the method 400 may proceed to block 412. In block 412, thetraffic section manager 204 may determine whether the traffic sectionmanager 204 previously assigned the first traffic section to the firstsection server 107. If the traffic section manager 204 did notpreviously assign the first traffic section to the first section server107 but to the remote management server 101 and thus the first trafficsection is currently managed by the remote management server 101, thetraffic area processor 202 may determine that the traffic condition ofthe first traffic section is degraded as the first traffic section iscurrently managed by the remote management server 101 and the responsivevehicle rate of the first traffic section satisfies the responsivevehicle rate threshold (e.g., more than 10 responsive vehicles). Thus,even when being managed by the remote management server 101 with arelatively high number of responsive vehicles 103 in the first trafficsection, the traffic condition of the first traffic section is stilldegraded. In this situation, the method 400 may proceed to block 402 tore-determine the geographical traffic area and/or the traffic sectionsin the geographical traffic area as discussed above.

If in block 412, the traffic section manager 204 determines that thetraffic section manager 204 previously assigned the first trafficsection to the first section server 107 associated with the firsttraffic section and thus the first traffic section is currently managedby the first section server 107, the traffic area processor 202 maydetermine that the traffic condition of the first traffic section isdegraded as the first traffic section is currently managed by the firstsection server 107 and the responsive vehicle rate of the first trafficsection satisfies the responsive vehicle rate threshold (e.g., more than10 responsive vehicles). Thus, as the number of responsive vehicles 103in the first traffic section is relatively high, the effectiveness ofthe traffic management for the first traffic section may be improved ifit is performed by the remote management server 101 instead of the firstsection server 107. In this situation, the method 400 may proceed toblock 414.

In block 414, the traffic section manager 204 may determine a secondtraffic section located adjacent to the first traffic section among theplurality of traffic sections in the geographical traffic area. In someembodiments, the second traffic section may be located within apredefined distance from the first traffic section (e.g., less than 15m), and thus the traffic condition in these two traffic sections mayimpact one another. In some embodiments, the second traffic section maybe located directly adjacent to the first traffic section. In block 416,the traffic section manager 204 may aggregate the first traffic sectionand the second traffic section into an aggregated section. In block 418,the traffic section manager 204 may assign the aggregated section to theremote management server 101 to perform the traffic management for theaggregated section. This implementation is advantageous, because it canincrease the responsive vehicle rate of the aggregated section as theaggregated section includes the responsive vehicles 103 located in bothfirst traffic section and second traffic section. As a result, theremote management server 101 can manage the traffic in the aggregatedsection more effectively through the responsive vehicles 103 located inthe aggregated section.

As an example, FIG. 7C illustrates an example system architecture 720 inhybrid management state in which one or more traffic sections in thegeographical traffic area may be individually managed by the sectionservers 107 associated with these traffic sections, while two or moretraffic sections may be aggregated into one aggregated section andcommonly managed by the remote management server 101. As depicted inFIG. 7C, the traffic section manager 204 may aggregate the trafficsections 702 a and 702 b into the aggregated section 722 a, aggregatethe traffic sections 702 c and 702 d into the aggregated section 722 b,and assign the aggregated section 722 a and 722 b to the remotemanagement server 101. In this example, other traffic sections in thegeographical traffic area (e.g., the traffic section 702 n) may each bemanaged by its corresponding section server 107.

In some embodiments, as the aggregated section is managed by the remotemanagement server 101, the traffic section manager 204 may monitor thetraffic condition in the aggregated section, and determine whether atraffic metric of the aggregated section satisfies a correspondingtraffic metric threshold (e.g., the traffic flow rate is less than 3vehicles/s, the average vehicle speed is lower than 40 mph, etc.). Ifthe traffic metric of the aggregated section satisfies the correspondingtraffic metric threshold, the traffic section manager 204 may determinethat the traffic condition in the aggregated section is not improved. Insome embodiments, if the traffic condition in the aggregated section isnot improved, the traffic section manager 204 may determine one or morethird traffic sections that are adjacent to the first traffic sectionand/or the second traffic section of the aggregated section and have theresponsive vehicle rate satisfying a responsive vehicle rate incrementthreshold (e.g., more than 7 responsive vehicles). The traffic sectionmanager 204 may expand the aggregated section to include the one or morethird traffic sections, and the remote management server 101 may thenmanage the traffic in the expanded aggregated section. Thisimplementation is advantageous, because it can flexibly adjust theaggregated section to increase the quantity of responsive vehiclespresent in the aggregated section, thereby improving the trafficmanagement performed for the aggregated section by the remote managementserver 101. Gradually expanding the aggregated section if needed (e.g.,by one third traffic section or a predefined number of third trafficsections at a time) can also avoid unnecessarily incorporating too manytraffic sections into the aggregated section, thereby limiting theresource amount of the remote management server 101 being utilized tomanage the traffic in the aggregated section, and thus the resourceusage cost can be reduced.

FIG. 5A is a flowchart of an example method 500 for managing the trafficsections in the geographical traffic area. As discussed elsewhereherein, the traffic section manager 204 may previously assign anaggregated section to the remote management server 101, and theaggregated section may include a first traffic section and a secondtraffic section. In block 502, for the aggregated section that ismanaged by the remote management server 101, the traffic section manager204 may monitor the responsive vehicle rate of each traffic sectionincluded in the aggregated section. In block 504, the traffic sectionmanager 204 may determine whether the responsive vehicle rate of thefirst traffic section in the aggregated section satisfies the responsivevehicle rate threshold. If the responsive vehicle rate of the firsttraffic section satisfies the responsive vehicle rate threshold (e.g.,more than 10 responsive vehicles), the method 500 may proceed to block502 to continue monitoring the responsive vehicle rate of the trafficsections included in the aggregated section. If the responsive vehiclerate of the first traffic section does not satisfy the responsivevehicle rate threshold (e.g., less than or equal to 10 responsivevehicles), the traffic section manager 204 may determine that the numberof responsive vehicles in the first traffic section is no longersufficient to effectively manage the traffic in the first trafficsection through coordinating the vehicle movement of these responsivevehicles 103. In this situation, the method 500 may proceed to block506.

In block 506, the traffic section manager 204 may divide the aggregatedsection into multiple individual traffic sections that form theaggregated section. In block 508, the traffic section manager 204 mayassign each traffic section to the section server 107 associated withthe traffic section, and the section server 107 may manage the trafficin the traffic section. For example, in the example system architecture740 depicted in FIG. 7E, the traffic section manager 204 may split theaggregated section 722 a into the first traffic section 702 a and thesecond traffic section 702 b. The traffic section manager 204 may thenassign the first traffic section 702 a to the corresponding firstsection server 107 a, and assign the second traffic section 702 b to thecorresponding second section server 107 b. This implementation isadvantageous, because when the traffic management for the trafficsection in the aggregated section can no longer be performed effectivelyby the remote management server 101 due to a decrease in the responsivevehicle rate of the traffic section, the traffic section may then behanded over to the corresponding section server 107 to be managed by thecorresponding section server 107. As a result, the resource amount ofthe remote management server 101 being consumed to perform the trafficmanagement for the geographical traffic area can be limited, and thusthe resource usage cost can be reduced.

In some embodiments, the traffic section manager 204 may determine thequantity of traffic sections in the aggregated section that has theresponsive vehicle rate not satisfying the responsive vehicle ratethreshold. If the quantity of these traffic sections in the aggregatedsection satisfies a threshold quantity of traffic sections (e.g., morethan 2 traffic sections), the traffic section manager 204 may thendivide the aggregated section into multiple individual traffic sections,and assign each traffic section to the corresponding section server 107as discussed above. In some embodiments, if all traffic sections in theaggregated section each has the responsive vehicle rate of the trafficsection not satisfying the responsive vehicle rate threshold, thetraffic section manager 204 may then divide the aggregated section intomultiple individual traffic sections, and assign each traffic section tothe corresponding section server 107 as discussed above.

FIG. 5B is a flowchart of an example method 550 for managing the trafficsections in the geographical traffic area. As discussed elsewhereherein, the traffic section manager 204 may previously assign anaggregated section to the remote management server 101, and theaggregated section may include a first traffic section and a secondtraffic section. In block 552, for the aggregated section that ismanaged by the remote management server 101, the traffic section manager204 may monitor the resource amount associated with the aggregatedsection. The resource amount associated with the aggregated section mayindicate the resource amount of the remote management server 101 that isutilized to perform one or more computational tasks to manage theresponsive vehicles 103 in the aggregated section. These computationaltasks may also be referred to herein as the computational tasksassociated with the aggregated section.

In block 554, the traffic section manager 204 may determine whether theresource amount associated with the aggregated section satisfies acorresponding resource amount threshold (e.g., the occupied memory spaceis higher than 3 GB, the communication bandwidth is higher than 1.5Mbps, etc.). If the resource amount associated with the aggregatedsection does not satisfy the corresponding resource amount threshold,the method 550 may proceed to block 552 to continue monitoring theresource amount associated with the aggregated section. If the resourceamount associated with the aggregated section satisfies thecorresponding resource amount threshold, the traffic section manager 204may determine that the remote management server 101 utilizes a largeamount of its computational resource to perform the traffic managementfor the traffic sections in the aggregated section, and thus causing alarge resource usage cost. In this situation, the method 550 may proceedto block 556. Alternatively, in this situation, the traffic sectionmanager 204 may divide the aggregated section into multiple individualtraffic sections that form the aggregated section, and assign eachtraffic section to its corresponding section server 107 as discussedabove with reference to blocks 506 and 508 of FIG. 5A.

Referring back to FIG. 5B, in block 556, the traffic section manager 204may select a third section server 107 associated with a third trafficsection that is distinct from the traffic sections included in theaggregated section (e.g., the first traffic section and the secondtraffic section). In some embodiments, the third section server 107 maybe dedicated to manage the traffic in the third traffic section, and maybe a local/regional server or a vehicular server comprising thecomputing devices 152 of one or more responsive vehicles 103 located inthe third traffic section. In some embodiments, the traffic sectionmanager 204 may select the third section server 107 that has theavailable resource capacity satisfying the resource amount associatedwith the aggregated section. For example, the third section server 107may have the available resource capacity equal to or higher than theresource amount of the remote management server 101 that is utilized toperform the computational tasks associated with the aggregated section,and thus the third section server 107 can accommodate the need ofcomputational resource to perform the traffic management for theaggregated section.

In block 558, the traffic section manager 204 may transfer thecomputational tasks associated with the aggregated section to the thirdsection server 107, and the third section server 107 may perform thesecomputational tasks to manage the traffic in the traffic sections of theaggregated section. This implementation is advantageous, because when arelatively large amount of computational resource of the remotemanagement server 101 is consumed to perform the computational tasksassociated with the aggregated section, the computational tasksassociated with the aggregated section may be transferred to the thirdsection server 107 to be performed by the third section server 107. As aresult, the resource amount of the remote management server 101 beingutilized to manage the traffic in the aggregated section can be limited,and thus the resource usage cost can be reduced. The third sectionserver 107 may also be referred to herein as the offload section server107.

In some embodiments, as the computational tasks associated with theaggregated section are transferred to the third section server 107, theremote management server 101 may continue to receive data from theresponsive vehicles 103 located within the traffic sections of theaggregated section, and transmit the data of these responsive vehicles103 to the third section server 107. Thus, the third section server 107may perform the computational tasks associated with the aggregatedsection using the data received from the responsive vehicles 103 locatedin the traffic sections of the aggregated section.

As an example, FIG. 7D illustrates an example system architecture 730 inwhich the traffic section manager 204 may transfer the computationaltasks associated with the aggregated section 722 a to the offloadsection server 732. In this example, the remote management server 101may receive the vehicle data from the responsive vehicles 103 locatedwithin the first traffic section 702 a and the second traffic section702 b of the aggregated section 722 a, and transmit the vehicle data ofthese responsive vehicles 103 to the navigation application 122implemented on the offload section server 732. The navigationapplication 122 implemented on the offload section server 732 mayanalyze the vehicle data of the responsive vehicles 103 located in thetraffic sections of the aggregated section 722 a, compute the vehicleinstructions for each responsive vehicle 103 in the aggregated section722 a, and transmit the vehicle instructions for these responsivevehicle 103 to the remote management server 101. The remote managementserver 101 may then communicate the vehicle instructions to thecorresponding responsive vehicles 103 in the first traffic section 702 aand the second traffic section 702 b of the aggregated section 722 a.Thus, the responsive vehicles 103 in the first traffic section 702 a andthe second traffic section 702 b of the aggregated section 722 a maystill be commonly managed but their vehicle instructions are generatedby the offload section server 732 instead of the remote managementserver 101.

In some embodiments, the traffic section manager 204 may compute thesection distance between the traffic section of the offload sectionserver 732 and the aggregated section 722 a, and determine whether thesection distance satisfies a section distance threshold (e.g., less than450 m). If the section distance between the traffic section of theoffload section server 732 and the aggregated section 722 a satisfiesthe section distance threshold, the traffic section manager 204 maydetermine that traffic section of the offload section server 732 isrelatively close to the aggregated section 722 a. In this situation, theresponsive vehicles 103 located within the traffic sections of theaggregated section 722 a may transmit their vehicle data directly to theoffload section server 732, and the offload section server 732 maycommunicate the vehicle instructions directly to the correspondingresponsive vehicle 103 located in these traffic sections, and thus thecommunication latency can be reduced.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example method 600 for managing the trafficsections in the geographical traffic area. In block 602, for a firstresponsive vehicle 103 located in a first traffic section associatedwith a first section server 107, the traffic section manager 204 mayinstruct the first section server 107 to generate a first vehicleinstruction for the first responsive vehicle 103. In some embodiments,the first section server 107 may generate the first vehicle instructionfor the first responsive vehicle 103 using the vehicle data of theresponsive vehicles 103 located in the first traffic section. As anexample, the first section server 107 may determine the driving contextbased on the vehicle data of the responsive vehicles 103 located in thefirst traffic section, and generate the first vehicle instruction forthe first responsive vehicle 103 to stay in current lane (e.g., lane 1)and proceed in lane 1 at the vehicle speed of 25 mph.

In block 604, the traffic section manager 204 may instruct the remotemanagement server 101 to generate a second vehicle instruction for thesame first responsive vehicle 103. In some embodiments, the remotemanagement server 101 may generate the second vehicle instruction forthe first responsive vehicle 103 using the vehicle data of theresponsive vehicles 103 located in the first traffic section and thevehicle data of the responsive vehicles 103 located in one or moresecond traffic sections that are adjacent to the first traffic section.The one or more second traffic sections may be located within apredefined distance from the first traffic section (e.g., 50 m), or maybe located directly adjacent to the first traffic section in thegeographical traffic area. As an example, the remote management server101 may determine the driving context based on the vehicle data of theresponsive vehicles 103 located in the first traffic section and thesecond traffic section(s), and generate the second vehicle instructionfor the first responsive vehicle 103 to make a lane change from lane 1to lane 3 and proceed in lane 3 at the vehicle speed of 33 mph.

In block 606, the traffic section manager 204 may determine theinstruction difference between the first vehicle instruction for thefirst responsive vehicle 103 generated by the first section server 107and the second vehicle instruction for the first responsive vehicle 103generated by the remote management server 101. In block 608, the trafficsection manager 204 may determine whether the instruction differencebetween the first vehicle instruction and the second vehicle instructionsatisfies an instruction difference threshold. For example, the trafficsection manager 204 may determine whether the vehicle lane in the firstvehicle instruction generated for the first responsive vehicle 103 bythe first section server 107 is different from the vehicle lane in thesecond vehicle instruction generated for the first responsive vehicle103 by the remote management server 101, whether the speed differencebetween the vehicle speeds computed for the first responsive vehicle 103in these two vehicle instructions satisfies the vehicle speed threshold(e.g., more than 5 mph), etc.

In some embodiments, if the instruction difference between the firstvehicle instruction and the second vehicle instruction does not satisfythe instruction difference threshold, the traffic section manager 204may determine that the first vehicle instruction for the firstresponsive vehicle 103 generated by the first section server 107 isrelatively similar to the second vehicle instruction for the same firstresponsive vehicle 103 generated by the remote management server 101.Thus, the traffic section manager 204 may determine that the trafficmanagement performed by the first section server 107 for itscorresponding first traffic section may be insignificantly differentfrom the traffic management performed by the remote management server101 for the first traffic section. In this situation, the method 600 mayproceed to block 610. In block 610, the traffic section manager 204 mayassign the first traffic section to the first section server 107associated with the first traffic section.

In some embodiments, if the instruction difference between the firstvehicle instruction and the second vehicle instruction satisfies theinstruction difference threshold, the traffic section manager 204 maydetermine that the first vehicle instruction for the first responsivevehicle 103 generated by the first section server 107 is significantlydifferent from the second vehicle instruction for the same firstresponsive vehicle 103 generated by the remote management server 101. Asthe remote management server 101 may receive vehicle data from theresponsive vehicles 103 located in the first traffic section and thesecond traffic section(s), the remote management server 101 maydetermine a comprehensive overall driving context in these trafficsections. As a result, the remote management server 101 may generate thevehicle instructions for the responsive vehicles 103 in these trafficsections to manage the traffic in these traffic sections moreeffectively, as compared to the first section server 107 that generatesthe vehicle instructions for the responsive vehicles 103 in the firsttraffic section using only the vehicle data of the responsive vehicles103 located in the first traffic section. In this situation, the method600 may proceed to block 620. In block 620, the traffic section manager204 may aggregate the first traffic section and the second trafficsection(s) into an aggregated section. In block 622, the traffic sectionmanager 204 may assign the aggregated section to the remote managementserver 101.

This implementation is advantageous, because the traffic section manager204 may aggregate the first traffic section and the second trafficsection(s) and assign the aggregated section to the remote managementserver 101 only if the remote management server 101 can manage theresponsive vehicles 103 in the aggregated section with the vehicleinstructions significantly different from the vehicle instructions thatthe first section server 107 can generate to manage the responsivevehicles 103 in the first traffic section. In that situation, thetraffic section manager 204 may assign the aggregated section includingthe first traffic section to the remote management server 101, and thusthe first traffic section can be managed more effectively together withthe second traffic section(s) by the remote management server 101. Onthe other hand, if the vehicle instructions generated for the responsivevehicles 103 in the first traffic section by the first section server107 and by the remote management server 101 are relatively similar, thefirst traffic section can be managed by the first section server 107 aseffectively as being managed by the remote management server 101. Inthat situation, the traffic section manager 204 may not assign the firsttraffic section to the remote management server 101, but to the firstsection server 107 associated with the first traffic section. As aresult, the resource amount of the remote management server 101 beingutilized to manage the traffic in the geographical traffic area can belimited, and thus the resource usage cost can be reduced.

In some embodiments, the traffic section manager 204 may determine thetraffic metric difference between a traffic metric of the first trafficsection and the traffic metric of the second traffic section(s) locatedadjacent to the first traffic section, and determine whether the trafficmetric difference satisfies the corresponding traffic metric differencethreshold. If the traffic metric difference satisfies the correspondingtraffic metric difference threshold (e.g., the vehicle densitydifference is higher than 3 vehicles/km, the vehicle speed difference ishigher than 5 mph, etc.), the traffic section manager 204 may determinethat the traffic condition of the first traffic section is significantlydifferent from the traffic condition of the second traffic section(s)located adjacent to the first traffic section. In that situation, thefirst traffic section and the second traffic section(s) may likely bemanaged more efficiently together by the remote management server 101.In some embodiments, in that situation, the traffic section manager 204may perform the method 600 as discussed above to determine whether toassign the first traffic section to the first section server 107associated with the first traffic section, or to aggregate the firsttraffic section and the second traffic section(s) into an aggregatedsection and assign the aggregated section to the remote managementserver 101.

In the above description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe present disclosure. However, it should be understood that thetechnology described herein could be practiced without these specificdetails. Further, various systems, devices, and structures are shown inblock diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the description. Forinstance, various implementations are described as having particularhardware, software, and user interfaces. However, the present disclosureapplies to any type of computing device that can receive data andcommands, and to any peripheral devices providing services.

In some instances, various implementations may be presented herein interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent set of operations leading to a desiredresult. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations ofphysical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantitiestake the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout this disclosure, discussions utilizingterms including “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“displaying,” or the like, refer to the action and processes of acomputer system, or similar electronic computing device, thatmanipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic)quantities within the computer system's registers and memories intoother data similarly represented as physical quantities within thecomputer system memories or registers or other such information storage,transmission or display devices.

Various implementations described herein may relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may bestored in a computer-readable storage medium, including, but is notlimited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CDROMs, and magnetic disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flashmemories including USB keys with non-volatile memory or any type ofmedia suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupled to acomputer system bus.

The technology described herein can take the form of a hardwareimplementation, a software implementation, or implementations containingboth hardware and software elements. For instance, the technology may beimplemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware,resident software, microcode, etc. Furthermore, the technology can takethe form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usableor computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or inconnection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For thepurposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readablemedium can be any non-transitory storage apparatus that can contain,store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories that provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/Odevices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointingdevices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or throughintervening I/O controllers.

Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the dataprocessing system to become coupled to other data processing systems,storage devices, remote printers, etc., through intervening privateand/or public networks. Wireless (e.g., Wi-Fi™) transceivers, Ethernetadapters, and modems, are just a few examples of network adapters. Theprivate and public networks may have any number of configurations and/ortopologies. Data may be transmitted between these devices via thenetworks using a variety of different communication protocols including,for example, various Internet layer, transport layer, application layerprotocols, and/or other communication protocols discussed elsewhereherein.

Finally, the structure, algorithms, and/or interfaces presented hereinare not inherently related to any particular computer or otherapparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs inaccordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient toconstruct more specialized apparatus to perform the required methodblocks. The required structure for a variety of these systems willappear from the description above. In addition, the specification is notdescribed with reference to any particular programming language. It willbe appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used toimplement the teachings of the specification as described herein.

The foregoing description has been presented for the purposes ofillustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the specification to the precise form disclosed. Manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteaching. It is intended that the scope of the disclosure be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by the claims of thisapplication. As will be understood by those familiar with the art, thespecification may be embodied in other specific forms without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Likewise, theparticular naming and division of the modules, routines, features,attributes, methodologies, and other aspects are not mandatory orsignificant, and the mechanisms that implement the specification or itsfeatures may have different names, divisions and/or formats.

Furthermore, the modules, routines, features, attributes, methodologies,and other aspects of the disclosure can be implemented as software,hardware, firmware, or any combination of the foregoing. Also, wherevera component, an example of which is a module, of the specification isimplemented as software, the component can be implemented as astandalone program, as part of a larger program, as a plurality ofseparate programs, as a statically or dynamically linked library, as akernel loadable module, as a device driver, and/or in every and anyother way known now or in the future. Additionally, the disclosure is inno way limited to implementation in any specific programming language,or for any specific operating system or environment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: determining a plurality oftraffic sections for a geographical traffic area, each traffic sectionincluding a road segment and one or more vehicles traveling on the roadsegment; monitoring a responsive vehicle rate for a first trafficsection of the plurality of traffic sections; and assigning, based onthe responsive vehicle rate of the first traffic section, the firsttraffic section to one of a first section server dedicated to manage thefirst traffic section and a remote management server capable of managingthe plurality of traffic sections of the geographical traffic area, thefirst section server comprising one or more computing devices of one ormore responsive vehicles in the first traffic section.